Swiss-born Belgian physicist notable for his exploration of both the upper stratosphere and the depths of the sea in ships of his own design. In 1930 he built a balloon to study cosmic rays. In 1932 he developed a new cabin design for balloon flights, and in the same year he ascended to 17,008 metres (55,800 feet). He completed a bathyscaphe in 1948 and later made several dives with his son Jacques. Piccard was born into a family of Swiss scholars. His father, Jules Piccard, was a professor of chemistry at the University of Basel. Auguste and his twin brother, Jean, enrolled together at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zürich, where they studied physics and chemistry, respectively. When they became doctors of science, both decided to teach in universities; Jean, the chemist, went first to Munich, then to Lausanne, and then to the United States; and Auguste, the physicist, stayed on at the Institute. In 1920 Auguste married the daughter of a French historian at the...